A wide variety of information systems may employ information servers. Information servers may be used to provide access to data stored on the persistent storage devices. A data center, for example, usually includes a set of information servers that provide access to data that is persistently stored on a set of disk drives in the data center.
Typically, an information server services information access transactions that target data stored on persistent storage devices. Examples of information access transactions include SQL read/write/modify transactions.
A typical information server includes an internal memory that may be used as a cache for data obtained from persistent storage. The caching of data in an internal memory of an information server usually improves response time of the information server when handling information access transactions for which data held in the cache.
It is often desirable to reduce the power consumption of an information server. In a data center, for example, it may be desirable to the reduce power consumption of its information servers to reduce overall power consumption in the data center. In addition, it may be desirable to reduce the power consumption of the information servers to reduce heat in the data center environment. A reduction in heat in a data center may increase the reliability of hardware in the data center and may enable more density in data center hardware and may reduce costs associated with over-provisioning. It may also be desirable to reduce the power consumption in a manner that avoids a severe negative impact on the overall response time of an information server when servicing information access transactions.